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Maritime Policy & Management
The flagship journal of international shipping and port research
Volume 38, 2011 - Issue 2
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Original Articles

To partner or to acquire? A longitudinal study of alliances in the shipping industry

Pages 111-128 | Received 16 Sep 2010, Accepted 17 Jan 2011, Published online: 11 Apr 2011

References and notes

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  • We use the term “partnerships” to focus on equity and non-equity joint-ventures
  • We use the term “acquisitions” to refer to both mergers and acquisitions. While mergers and acquisitions are distinct, for the purposes of this paper, they represent the same event—two shipping firms becoming one entity
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  • Besides partnerships and acquisitions among shipping companies (which is the focus of this paper), shipping firms also have relations with logistics service providers, terminal management, and intermodal services [35, 36]. Shipping firms need to respond to the increasing needs of shippers by expanding the scope of services beyond just maritime transportation. Authors have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of vertical integration of shipping with logistics [37, 38]. The role of ports is another interesting aspect of the maritime industry. Robinson 39 argued that both ports and their service providers are parts of the value-driven chain systems that compete with other systems to offer better services to the shippers. The selection of ports as the port-of-call is affected by their contribution to the overall cost of the flow of cargo 40
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  • http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~wlm/wlmscox.htm. Cox Regression, Internet guide to SPSS for Windows
  • http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stsurvan.html#rgeneral. STATSOFT. Survival/failure time analysis
  • We thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing out this important reason for acquisitions in the home region
  • ZOLLO, M., and SINGH, H., 1998, The impact of knowledge codification, experience, trajectories, and integration strategies on the performance of corporate acquisitions, Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, San Diego, CA
  • Mcknight , B , Reeve , JG and Lee , YH . 1997 . Can container lines make it as global logistics service providers? . Transportation and Distribution , 38 : 34
  • Heaver , TD . 2002 . The evolving roles of shipping lines in international logistics . International Journal of Maritime Economics , 4 : 210 – 230 .
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  • Paixao , CA and Marlow , PB . 2005 . The competitiveness of short sea shipping in multimodal logistics supply chains: Service attributes . Maritime Policy and Management , 32 : 363 – 382 .
  • Robinson , R . 2002 . Ports as elements in value-driven chain systems: The new paradigm . Maritime Policy and Management , 29 : 241 – 255 .
  • Yap , WY and Lam , JSL . 2006 . Competition dynamics between container ports in East Asia . Transportation Research Part A , 40 : 35 – 51 .

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